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This article or section is transcluded from Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation/Style guide/Layout (Aircraft). (edit | history)

This is a set of suggested guidelines for articles on specific aircraft types. Some wikipedians prefer a standardised look and feel to articles on closely-related subjects and these guidelines exist to facilitate achieving that goal for articles about aircraft.

For general guidelines about writing and editing Wikipedia articles, see Category:Wikipedia style guidelines.

[edit] Name

Every article in Wikipedia has a name, and most aircraft articles are named by their manufacturer, then by name and/or designation number, for example Boeing 747, Supermarine Spitfire.

Articles should always be named as generally as possible, so an article should only be named after a subtype (e.g. Messerschmitt Bf 109G) if writing about that specific version of the aircraft. Usually this will mean that we already have a more general article about the aircraft, relevant to all subtypes. If no general article exists, it may be worthwhile expanding the article slightly so that it encompasses all variants of the aircraft.

[edit] Introduction

Every article should begin with a short introduction naming the aircraft, its manufacturer(s), and the general category of aircraft it belongs to. For example:

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk received its type certificate from the FAA in 1955. It is an all-metal, four-seat, single-engine, high-wing airplane with one door under each wing. The 172 was a direct descendant of the earlier Cessna 170, which used conventional (tailwheel) landing gear instead of tricycle (nosewheel) gear.

Without going any further, a reader should already have a good basic idea of what kind of aircraft the article is describing.

[edit] NATO reporting names

To support ease of identification, articles about Russian military aircraft with official NATO designation names should bear the NATO name in bold-faced type within parentheses in the first line, secondary to the primary title, per the Wikipedia style guide on secondary names in lead sections. For example:

The Sukhoi Su-9 (NATO reporting name: Fishpot) was a single-engine, all-weather, missile-armed interceptor aircraft developed by the Soviet Union.^[1]

However, in the interest of preserving the original designations, the NATO reporting name should only be used in the variants section as comments and not elsewhere throughout the body. It should not be used to describe or denote the aircraft beyond direct quotations from sources.

[edit] Infobox

If the article is of moderate length or longer, an infobox is often a good way to sum up relevant information. {{Infobox Aircraft Type}} presents data such as manufacturer, maiden flight, service entry and retirement dates, number produced, and other quick facts in a fairly attractive and concise fashion. For the most part, as there is an appropriate field in the infobox itself, including the manufacturer in the "name" field is not necessary. Some exceptions exist, such as aircraft which only have model numbers. Flags should not be used in the infobox to indicate national origin.

Based on several past discussions, the infobox is purely optional, though infoboxes including specifications are frowned upon. {{Infobox Aircraft Type}} was designed with input from the project and its use is encouraged.

[edit] Body

The body of the article describes the aircraft in greater detail. This information is often best arranged in sections, especially in longer articles. Some frequently used sections in aircraft articles include any and all of the following:

[edit] Development

Describing the history behind the aircraft, often discussing why a manufacturer, airline, or air force felt there was a need for such an aircraft.

[edit] Design

Describing design, and major features of the aircraft. If noteworthy describe markings that the aircraft flew in, especially distinguishing or unusual schemes. Extensive descriptions of common or routine color schemes and markings are to be avoided. (Can be combined with above section as "Design and Development" if both sections are small, or if the text works better when covered together.)

[edit] Operational history

Describing the history of the aircraft in use. This section is something like a "biography" of the aircraft.

For information on when it is appropriate to include the aircraft the registration, serial numbers, construction numbers and other individual identifiers in an article or captions, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation/Registrations.

[edit] Variants

Describing major subtypes or variants of the aircraft. These can be arranged in subsections - see Messerschmitt Me 163 for an example of how this can be done.

[edit] Operators

Usually a collection of links to airlines or individual air force squadrons that are using or have used this type. May be separated into Military, Civilian and Former subsections if applicable and workable. Generally, it's best not to place potential operators in this section, only confirmed orders with likelihood of near-term production. Potential orders and interest by governments should be covered in the main text, either under "Development" or "Operational history", as fits best in the article.

[edit] Accidents and incidents

Note - This sections deals with lists of accidents and incidents on aircraft pages. For guidelines on stand-alone accident and incident pages, see WP:AIRCRASH.

For airline and military aircraft, a listing of notable aircraft incidents and accidents, where appropriate. Accidents or incidents should only be included if:

• The event resulted in a fatality or fatalities among the aircraft occupants or persons on the ground; or
• The event involved hull loss or serious damage to the aircraft or airport; or
• The event resulted in changes to procedures, regulations or processes affecting airports, airlines or the aircraft industry.

Light aircraft account for many more accidents and incidents than larger aircraft, most of which are non-notable. For accidents involving aircraft with maximum gross weights under 12,500 lb (5,670 kg) the standard for inclusion is:

• the event involved the death of a person of sufficient individual notability to have their own biography page in Wikipedia (and the biography is not solely due to them being an accident victim)

or if this is not the case then it meets all of the following requirements:

• The event was fatal to either aircraft occupants or persons on the ground; and
• The event involved hull loss or serious damage to the aircraft or airport; and
• The event resulted in changes to procedures, regulations or issuance of an Airworthiness Directives (or the equivalent to an AD in the case of non-certified aircraft).

Note: The title can be changed to just 'Accidents' or just 'Incidents' if applicable to the contents.

[edit] Aircraft on display

Aircraft on display should be information on non-airworthy aircraft that are on permanent public display. It should not include partial aircraft or aircraft not viewable by the public. When a large number of aircraft are still preserved the list should be limited to the most prominent ones.

[edit] Survivors

Survivors should be information on aircraft that have survived following the retirement of the aircraft type from normal military or commercial use. It should include airworthy aircraft and any non-airworthy aircraft not on public display but otherwise notable.

[edit] Images

Images should enhance the article in which they are placed and should also feature the subject of the article section near which they are placed.

• Infobox or lead images should show the aircraft in flight whenever such a picture is available. If an in-flight image is not available then the infobox or lead photo should show the best overall view of the aircraft and not a detail close up or similar shot. Detail photos should be further down, in the sections they better illustrate (i.e. Landing gear, instrument panel).

• Please use the "thumbnail" option for all images other than those inside infoboxes and the three-view drawing (where one is included in the specifications section). In accordance with Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Images, do not specify the size of the thumbnail as this is specified in user preferences.

• Wherever possible use free images, preferably uploaded to the Commons.

• The quality of an image is always more important than the quantity of images included — a gallery or a link to the Commons is preferable to flooding an article with images.

• Any captions should be concise and not overwhelm the image.

• Many existing images used in aircraft articles have been carefully selected to illustrate specific variants, angles of view or aircraft features. These images should not be deleted from articles without discussion and consensus that this action will improve the article on the article's talk page. Images may be added to the article without removing or replacing existing images without discussion.

[edit] Aircraft specifications

Note: through much of 2004, WikiProject Aircraft was using a table to present aircraft specifications, now archived.

This is a short summary of aircraft's characteristics and performance. If an article doesn't have specifications, you can either tag the article with {{aero-specs}} or add them yourself. Please use the new {{Aircraft specifications}} conditional template when adding specifications; details and a brief explanation are available on the template's talk page. You can either copy-and-paste the template into the page or type {{subst:airspec-imp}} for imperial (metric) units or {{subst:airspec-met}} for metric (imperial) units where the Specifications section would go. The blank template will be inserted when you save the page.

By convention, specifications are laid out as follows:

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

• Length: ft in (m)
• Wingspan: ft in (m)
• Height: ft in (m)
• Wing area: ft (m)
• Empty weight: lb (kg)
• Loaded weight: lb (kg)
• Useful load: lb (kg)
• Max takeoff weight: lb (kg)

Performance

• Never exceed speed: mph (km/h)
• Maximum speed: mph (km/h)
• Cruise speed: mph (km/h)
• Stall speed: mph (km/h)
• Range: mi (km)
• Service ceiling: ft (m)
• Rate of climb: ft/min (m/s)
• Wing loading: lb/ft² (kg/m²)
• Power/mass: hp/lb ( kW/kg)

• Thrust/weight: total thrust / loaded weight

• Guns:
• Bombs:
• Rockets:
• Missiles:
• Other:

Note that these specifications should relate to a specific variant of the aircraft, and be labelled accordingly. Usually this will be the most famous/noteworthy/numerous one.

Please keep in mind that if a line is not applicable to a particular aircraft type, it should be omitted, for example "powerplant" for sailplanes. On the other hand, if data is applicable but you simply don't know it, please leave the line in place to remind others to fill it in. If you're using the template, simply leave the line blank rather than omitting it.

• Capacity is for airliners and military transports
• Power for piston engines, Thrust for jets and rockets. Of course, a few types will have both. Therefore, Thrust/weight will also apply only to jets and rocket aircraft, and Power/mass to propeller aircraft. Delete whatever's not appropriate.
• Maximum speed may (and probably should) be given as a Mach number for supersonic aircraft.

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/Units for a more detailed discussion of units.

[edit] Engine specifications

Piston engines (all reciprocating engines, including rotary engines)

Please use the Pistonspecs template.

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

• Type: (example: seven-cylinder supercharged air-cooled radial piston engine)
• Bore: in (mm)
• Stroke: in (mm)
• Displacement: in³ (L)
• Length: in (mm)
• Diameter: in (mm)
• Dry weight: lb (kg)

Components

• Valvetrain: (example: two pushrod-actuated valves per cylinder with sodium-cooled exhaust valve, overhead camshaft-actuated, two intake and two exhaust valves per cylinder, sodium-cooled exhaust valve stems)³
• Supercharger: (example: two-speed two-stage, boost pressure automatically linked to the throttle, water-air aftercooler installed between the second stage and the engine)
• Turbocharger:
• Fuel system: (example: twin-choke updraft carburetor with automatic mixture control)
• Fuel type:
• Oil system: (example: dry sump with one pressure pump and two scavenge pumps)
• Cooling system: (example: 70% water and 30% ethylene glycol coolant mixture, pressurized)

Performance

• Power output: hp ( kW) at rpm for takeoff at sea level; hp (kW) at rpm for cruise at ft (m)
• Specific power: hp/in³ ( kW/L)
• Compression ratio:
• Fuel consumption: US gal/h ( L/h) at economical cruise
• Specific fuel consumption: (acceptable alternative to fuel consumption)
• Oil consumption: US gal/h ( L/h)
• Power-to-weight ratio: hp/lb ( kW/kg)

Jet engines (includes turbojets, turbofans, turboprops, and turboshafts)
Please use the Jetspecs template.

[edit] Specifications (variant described)

General characteristics

• Type: (examples: turbofan, turbojet, thermojet)
• Length: in ( mm)
• Diameter: in ( mm)
• Dry weight: lb ( kg)

Components

• Compressor: (example: single-stage dual-entry centrifugal compressor with two-sided impeller; axial compressor should also be wiki-linked)
• Combustion chambers: (example: 10 flow combustion chambers with igniter plugs in chambers 3 and 10)
• Turbine: (example: single-stage axial flow with 54 blades)
• Fuel type: (example: aviation kerosene with 1% lubricating oil)
• Oil system: US gal ( L) capacity, circulation rate US gal/h ( L/h), maximum inverted flying time
• Cooling system:

Performance

• Overall pressure ratio:
• Thrust: lbf ( kN) at rpm for takeoff; lbf ( kN) at rpm for cruise; lbf ( kN) at rpm at idle.
• Air consumption: lb/s (kg/s)
• Turbine inlet temperature: °F (°C)
• Fuel consumption: lb/h ( kg/h) at maximum power; lb/hr ( kg/h) at cruise power; lb/h ( kg/h) at idle
• Specific fuel consumption: (acceptable alternative to fuel consumption)
• Oil consumption: US gal/h ( L/h)
• Thrust-to-weight ratio:

[edit] Units

For general Wikipedia conventions on units, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers).

See Units page for conversion factors.

[edit] Thrust-to-weight ratio

The main purpose of having this ratio specified is to compare different engines and vehicles. We therefore need to be as consistent as possible within the wikipedia; and as consistent as possible with external sources.

The main difficulty is that whilst thrust has units of force, Weight here can either mean mass (kg or lb) or force due to gravity (N or lbf). If the latter, the figure is characteristically dimensionless and requires no conversion. Note that any metric and imperial unit usage must be consistent- use of lb's or kg's implies a thrust/mass ratio is specified.

Preferred:

(By about 100 times this is the most common usage found- this is very much preferred; also see [1].)

• Thrust/weight ratio of 0.3

Acceptable in some cases:

These usages should only be used to reflect the data source used for the article, to avoid unnecessary conversions which lose accuracy due to rounding issues, note that a dimensionless quantity is always present for comparison purposes to minimise the possibility of confusion. Not also that the raw data from the datasource is specified first.

• Thrust/weight ratio of 1 lbf/lb (9.81 N/kg, 1)
• Thrust/weight ratio of 9.81 N/kg (1 lbf/lb, 1)
• Thrust/weight ratio of 1.3:1
• Thrust/weight ratio of 1 (1 lbf/lb, 9.81 N/kg)

Sometimes a 'thrust/mass' ratio is quoted by a data source as dimensionless. This typically means they're really quoting a thrust/weight ratio. Wherever possible this should be confirmed from another source, but rewriting it in the preferred or acceptable forms is justified, but should preferably be commented on in the talk page or using '< ! - >' style angle brackets invisibly in the article itself.

Deprecated:

• Thrust/mass ratio of 1 lbf/lb (9.81 N/kg) - please quote thrust/weight as well
• Thrust/mass ratio of 1 -thrust to mass cannot be dimensionless, convert
• Thrust:weight ratio of 1 (9.81 N/kg) - include both lbf/lb as well as N/kg is preferred
• Thrust/weight ratio of 9.81 (1 lbf/lb) - mathematically impossible!

[edit] Specific Impulse

The correct units for specific impulse are seconds in both imperial and SI units. (See Rocket Propulsion Elements by George P. Sutton and Oscar Biblarz, seventh edition et al). Therefore no conversion need be employed.

Sometimes specific impulse is incorrectly, but not unusually listed as a velocity or as Ns/kg. This is in fact a different quantity known as 'c', the effective exhaust velocity. This can take the units m/s (or equivalently, from Newton's third law Ns/kg) or ft/s. Its use is deprecated, but may be employed if quoted by a manufacturer, or added in addition to the specific impulse.

[edit] Aircraft unit costs

A helpful essay on understanding how different types of aircraft costs are reported, what they mean, and whether they should be used in an article or the {{infobox Aircraft}} is User:Askari Mark/Understanding aircraft unit costs. It is recommended that flyaway cost for military aircraft or retail price for commercial aircraft be used in the Infobox Aircraft since these are the most commonly available costs and thus provide readers with a means for “apples and apples” comparison of relative costs.

[edit] Operating costs

Information on aircraft operating costs should not be included in aircraft type articles, for the following reasons:

• It violates Wikipedia is not a directory
• Wikipedia is a world-wide project and US-centric, Euro-centric or other single country information should be avoided where possible. Providing good global operating costs is very difficult to do or source.
• Wikipedia:Reliable sources are very hard to find that give reasonable numbers for operating costs. Both aircraft manufacturers and aircraft type clubs have their own reasons for publishing numbers that are unrealistically low.
• Operating costs vary greatly in different parts of the world, and even different parts of the same country, due to differences in fuel prices, maintenance costs and hangarage pricing. For example: In 2008, fuel costs increased rapidly as OPEC regulated oil production, meaning that almost any published information about operating costs would have shortly been out of date, even in as little as a week or two from publishing, damaging the reliability of the encyclopedia for verifiability.

[edit] Notable appearances in media

A "Popular culture" section should be avoided per Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections in articles unless the appearances are especially notable. This section should not be a compendium of every trivial appearance, but significant ones of relevance to the airframe. The canonical example would be Top Gun for the F-14 Tomcat. Due to the large number of survey and arcade simulations, an effort should be made to avoid tallying every sim appearance unless there are very few of them. Fictional versions and speculation about fictional likenesses should not be included, as they constitute original research.

See Template:NoMoreCruft for a subst'ed template to discourage crufters and inexperienced Wikipedians from adding pop culture triva.

[edit] See also

This section contains links to other aircraft-related material in Wikipedia. There is a template available, {{Aircontent}} , with parameters for the below sections as well as external links. It no longer includes the {{Aviation lists}} template described below.

By convention, this section includes:

See also: Links to other related articles not already linked.

Related development: are those that this aircraft were developed from, or which were developed from it. Many aircraft will be stand-alone developments with no relatives, in which case this line should not be used.

e.g.: For the P-51 Mustang, "Related development" would include at least the F-82 Twin Mustang, CAC Kangaroo, Cavalier Mustang and Piper Enforcer.

Comparable aircraft: are those of similar role, era, and capability to this one. This will always be somewhat subjective, of course, but try to keep this as tight as possible. Again, some aircraft will be one-of-a-kind and this line will be inappropriate.

e.g.: aircraft comparable to the Boeing 707 include the Convair 880 and Douglas DC-8

Lists: relevant lists that this aircraft appears in

e.g. the Saab Viggen is listed in the List of military aircraft of Sweden

[edit] References

This section contains details of print references and/or external links to websites used in the article. Wikipedia prefers the APA format, so that's what we should use as well (see here for a comprehensive example set, and here for a list of templates). To integrate your references into the article, please use the reference tags. Examples of citations:

In the American Psychiatric Assocition (APA) style:

Book source

Lincoln, Abraham; Grant, U. S.; & Davis, Jefferson (1861). Resolving Family Differences Peacefully (3rd ed.). Gettysburg: Printing Press. ISBN 0-12-345678-9.

Journal

Brandybuck, Meriadoc. (1955). "Herb-lore of the Shire". Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry 10 (2), 234–351.

Newspaper/Magazine articles

Blair, Eric Arthur (August 29, 1949). "Looking forward to a bright tomorrow". New English Weekly, p. 57.

Websites

Gates, Bill & Ballmer, Steve (1998). "The Big Open-source Advocacy Homepage". Retrieved August 5, 2003.

Other Wikipedias

Citau les fonts from the Catalan-language Wikipedia. Retrieved: 27 December 2004.

Company press releases

Siemens AG (July 13, 1999). Shell and Siemens to develop emission-free fuel cell power plant. Press Release.

also in the Modern Language Association style:

Lincoln, Abraham, U.S. Grant and Jefferson Davis. Resolving Family Differences Peacefully (3rd ed.). Gettysburg: Printing Press, 1861. ISBN 0-12-345678-9.

Journal

Brandybuck, Meriadoc. "Herb-lore of the Shire". Journal of the Royal Institute of Chemistry 10 (2), 1955, pp. 234–351.

Newspaper/Magazine articles

Blair, Eric Arthur. "Looking forward to a bright tomorrow". New English Weekly August 29, 1949, p. 57.

Websites

Gates, Bill and Steve Ballmer. "Halloween". The Big Open-source Advocacy Homepage, 1998. Retrieved: 5 August 2003.

Other Wikipedias

Citau les fonts from the Catalan-language Wikipedia. Retrieved: December 27, 2004.

Company press releases

"Shell and Siemens to develop emission-free fuel cell power plant". Siemens AG Press Release, July 13, 1999.

There are also templates that allow the automatic formatting of references based on the information you have available; for websites, use {{cite web | }}, and for books, use {{cite book | }}. You are not required to use citation templates.

[edit] Further reading

This section (when used) contains a list of recommended books, articles, or other publications that have not been used as sources and may provide useful background or further information.

[edit] External links

This section contains links to external websites that were not reference material for the article, such as image sites. External links should summarize the website’s contents, and indicate why the website is relevant to the article. For further details see Wikipedia:External links.

[edit] Navboxes

Usually, we include a few navboxes to tie together aircraft by the same manufacturer or designated under the same sequence. The article ends with a final navbox that links together the bulk of Wikipedia's aviation content:

This can also be implemented simply by typing {{Aviation lists}}, which adds the footer template at the end of the article.

[edit] Category

Aircraft are categorised primarily by their nationality, role, and era, for example Category:British airliners 1960-1969. A number of secondary categories also exist that link together aircraft with certain noteworthy features, such as Category:Swing-wing aircraft. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/Categories for a full description of the Category system.

[edit] Hints, tips, and finishing touches

Remember wherever possible to link the powerplants and weapons, preferably in the article, but in the table if not mentioned in the text.

For some infomation on the inclusion of registrations/tail numbers/serials in aircraft articles refer to Registrations.

Please consider creating sub-articles if the content of any one section becomes too large. Sub articles should use a related title for example Foo accidents and incidents or Foo variants where Foo is the parent article title and the suffix is the section title. Create a Template:Main link from the parent article. Also note that if the content is a list it may be better to use List of Foo operators.

When you're done, please make sure to add your new article to list of aircraft, new powerplants to list of aircraft engines, and new weapons to the list of aircraft weapons. (Then, above them, there's also list of aircraft manufacturers and list of aircraft engine manufacturers and list of aviation topics,...)

[edit] Creating a new aircraft page

Enter the aircraft article you wish to create and all the elements of the layout will be automatically created:

1.

2. After you create a new page, please add it to Wikipedia:New articles (Aircraft)

Finally, remember that you're in no way obliged to follow all, or even any, of these guidelines to contribute an article.